Well, Howdy Coffinmaker!
I don't blame you for being underwhelmed with the lockwork. It isn't anything to write home about. Timing is good--especially at half-cock. But you may have noticed the cylinder wobble during cocking, which I attribute to an overly-light hand spring. Internal parts were rougher than I'd hoped. I did a light stoning on a few areas before reassembly, but I'll have to do some more work before I'm really satisfied.
A lot of the appeal that Standard has on me would have absolutely no influence on a lot of guys in cowboy action shooting. Most guys really don't care HOW a part is made, as long as it works well. I find Standard's "machine everything from 4140 barstock" very appealing, even though I must concede that it has no effect on performance. The only analogy I can come up with off-hand is the high regard the M-14 rifle aficionados have for milled-receiver M14 clones from LRB or Rock-ola vs. Springfield's cast M1A. Performance-wise, there's no difference. But there's something about all milled parts that appeals to them and to folks like me. It is hard to explain and even harder to justify, but part of the appeal of firearms for me in my formative years was my fascination for what work went into the actual machining. Show me a cast trigger guard vs. one milled from barstock, and I'd prefer the barstock one, despite there being no difference in performance between the two.
As for Bongo, I don't think even he could have gotten the screws that tight, given the often soft nature of Italian screws. I can only credit the quality of Standard's screws and a well-fitted, strong screwdriver bit for my ultimate success in loosening those screws. But I don't think a sprung backstrap was to blame. ALL the screws were tight. I even had to strain to loosen the bolt, trigger, and hammer screws. The whole time I was torquing on those screws, I kept imagining what would happen if the screwdriver broke. I was really sweating bullets on that disassembly!